Ann Czernik reports and photographs regularly for the Guardian Northerner on the social challenges facing our three regions as austerity takes its toll. In the last year, she has looked at York's housing crisis, action to defend jobs and teenage binge drinking as well as public reaction to 2012's byelections and police commissioner and local council polls. Here's her calendar with a precis of prospects for the year ahead.

Ahead of the Labour party conference in Manchester, Michael Dugher, Labour MP for Barnsley East and shadow minister without portfolio, argues that David Cameron and his policies are all at sea in northern England.

Government structures for the likes of Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield give too much say to big local business, argues Kevin Meagher. This could skew the outcomes and pointlessly damage both the public sector and smaller firms